1.TIME FRAME?
1939-1945
September 1, 1939 - Germany invades Poland, World War 2 begins
December 7th, 1941 - Japan attacks Pearl harbor and Roosevelt signs American declaration of war Dec. 8th
August 14,1945 - Japan surrenders, war finally ends. WW2 Time Line
2.WHO WERE THE MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE COMING AND FIGHTING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR? This is a productive start! Let's add some photos of these leaders - serious ones, please.
"Axis" powers Vs. "Allies"
Axis powers include:
Japan
Germany
Italy
Allied countries include:
Great Britain
United States
U.S.S.R. (Soviet Union)
Nazi Germany- Adolf Hitler
Extreme Nationalism
Miltaristic expansion
Forceful leader
Private property with government controls
Anticommunist
Rise in leadership from desperate economic depression in Germany
These are the major points that describe Hitler. Let's include some more detailed discussion related to how (and why) these things relate to Hitler. Japan- Hideki Tojo
War time leader of japan's government
Military dictatorship throughout the Pacific war
Indecisive as national leader
Built up a personal power base and used his position as head of the military police of Japan's garrison force in Manchuria to rein in their influence before he became the Kwantung Army's chief of staff in 1937
He pushed for alliance with Germany (where he had served in 1920-1922) and Italy, and he supported the formation of a broad political front of national unity
Fascist Italy- Benito Mussolini
Militaristic expansion
Charismatic leader
Private property with government control
Extreme nationalism
Unemployment and inflation
Serious problems: middle class and upper class demand strong leadership
Mussolini appealed to Italy's wounded national pride and played on fears of economic collapse
Government created a totalitarian state
Communist Soviet Union-Joseph Stalin
Focus = create a model communist state
Focus = Agriculture/ Industry are prime goals
Abolish privately owned farms and replaced with collectives: large government owned farms run by 100's of families
"Five years plans" = direct all industrialization- economic acitivity- under state control
Government = totalitarian government complete control over citizens
Create a sound and wait for world revolution
revolution by workers
eventual rule by working class
state ownership
Great Britain- Winston Churchill
Atlantic Charter
Churchill also developed a strong personal relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt and this led to the sharing and trading of war supplies. The Lend Lease agreement of March 1941 allowed Britain to order war goods from the United States on credit.
Neville Chamberlain
British prime minister from 1937-1940
Munich Pact: British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement prevented the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest.
Strong Leadership
United States-FranklinD. Roosevelt
President of the United States during World War II
The Four Freedoms- Freedom from Speech and expression, Freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, freedom from want and which, and Freedom from fear
The Atlantic Charter- certain common principles int he national policies of their respective contries on which they base there hopes for a better future of the world
Executive Order 9066- authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable." The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country.
3.WHAT WERE THE REASONS FOR US INVOLVEMENT IN THIS WAR?
- Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor
- In September 1940 the US placed an embargo on Japan. Then in April 1941 the Japanese sign a neutrality agreement witht he USSR in the event of war with the USA/GB. Next in June/July the Japanese occupy Indochina. The US froze the assets of the Japanese too. Then on November 29, 1941 General Tojo Hideki sets the last day of settlement with out war. The Japanese can't wait any longer so on December 7, 1941 ( "A day which will live in Infamy") Japan bombs Pearl harbor. After this attack the USA declars war the next day December 8, 1941.
- evident threat to Roosevelt's Four Freedoms
4.WHAT STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES WERE UTILIZED TO ACHIEVE VICTORY?
-US created internment camps for Japanese (potential threats)
- "Two- fronted" combat technique, which enabled Allies to take hold of France and invade Nazi-occupied Europe
5.IN WHAT WAYS DID THE UNITED STATES CHANGE POLITICALLY, SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY AS A RESULT OF WORLD WAR TWO?
Socially The US Economy changed by citizens making sacrifices in thier homes and food. Women joined the work force. Also World War 2 created jobs for some
unemployed citizens.
= America and the Holocuast
Please insert your writing assignments here. We Will Never Die Pageant The American media did not give a lot of notice to the coming crisis in Europe. The media gave such little information about the atrocities being commited in Europe that over 50% of the American public did not believe it was happening or had no opinion on the matter. This had a startling impact on one American. Ben Hecht took it into his own hands to increase awareness are what was going on in Europe
Hecht’s plan was to create a theatrical presentation with a cast like none before and to tour the nation increasing awareness of what was truly happening in Europe. The Jewish organizations actually refused to fund this production so it was postponed for a period of time. The Jewish organizations feared that the pageants might provoke the Anti-Semitics to become more violent. The pageant finally found support in Hollywood where many famous actors starred in this production. It wasn’t a common thing in that time for actors to speak out politically so this came as a large shock to most of America.
This event is an important to study due to its impact on the rescue effort. The pageant pushed for alternative ways to save the European Jews that had no interaction in the war effort. The pageant increased awareness by performing to over 100,000 people across America and also it led to more coverage of what was going on in Europe through the media. The widespread support of the rescue effort that was caused by this performance pushed congress to create the war rescue board and without this happening the Jewish that were interned in Europe could have all been killed before we could have rescued them.
Father Charles Coughlin (1891-1979)
Charles Coughlin was one of the most influential Anti-Semitic preachers in the United States. Father Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest. He strongly believed in Christ and those that didn’t he disliked. Starting in 1926, he began to build an audience from his religious and political radio program. This is how he got the nickname “Radio Preacher”. He had over 30 million Sunday listeners during the 1930’s. Initially he supported FDR and his views but began to disagree with the “New Deal” FDR proposed. Eventually he turned the radio program into preaching anti-Semitism and warfare.
In 1936, Coughlin expressed antisemitic themes. He blamed the Depression on an "international conspiracy of Jewish bankers". He made a magazine,Social Justice, which was publicized around 1939. The December 5, 1938 issue of the magazine included an article written by Coughlin which attacked Jews, atheists and communists. Also at a rally in New York he gave a Nazi salute and said, "When we get through with the Jews in America, they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing." He also said "Nothing can be gained by linking ourselves with any organization which is engaged in agitating racial animosities or propagating racial hatred."
File:Henry Morgenthau, Jr..jpg
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (May 11, 1891 - February 6, 1967) was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of FDR. After 1937 he played an increasingly major role in foreign policy helping Jewish refugees and to prevent Germany from ever again being a military power after the allied victory in 1945. Once confronted by the Holocaust, the Allied powers reacted slowly. Refusing the initial appeal of Jewish organizations for Allied countries to deliver food and medicine to the ghettos of Europe, the British and U.S. governments argued that supplies would be diverted for the Germans' personal use or would be granted to the Jews just to free the Third Reich from its "responsibility" to feed them. A license granted in December 1942 for such shipments had minimal effect. In 1943, the Treasury Department approved the World Jewish Congress' plan to rescue Jews through the use of blocked accounts in Switzerland, but the State Department and the British Foreign Office procrastinated further. Morgenthau and his staff persisted in bypassing State and ultimately confronting Roosevelt in January 1944, along with increasing calls from Congress and the public for a presidential rescue commission; the eventual result was the executive creation of the US War Refugee Board in January 1944. The Board allowed an increasing number of Jews to enter the U.S. in 1944 and 1945; as many as 200,000 Jews were saved in this way. Morgenthau also advocated the summary execution without trial of the top 50 or 100 Nazi criminals and had some success, but in the end the Nuremberg trials became the chosen option. Later in his career Morgenthau resigned in mid-1945, when Truman became President and Morgenthau's advice was no longer sought. He devoted the remainder of his life to worjing with Jewish philanthropies, and also became a financial advisor to Israel. Tal Shahar, an Israeli agricultural community near Jerusalem was named in his honor (Morgenthau means "morning dew" in German, and so does the Hebrew name "Tal Shahar"). 2010: Hate Crimes Throbbing In Russia
Hate crimes might at first be thought of as exclusively violence towards people who have prejudice thoughts held against them for traits such as homosexuality, different various races or ethnic groups, etc. Famous hate crimes like the death of Emmett Till, or the Al Quaida attack of 9/11 are having to do with extreme disgust with races/ethnic groups and can be considered political statements. However, the term "hate crime" is not limited to violence towards a person/group of people just for being something the aggressor doesn't agree with. A hate crime is meant to send a threatening message. One recent hate crime, or considered by some, an epidemic of hate crimes, against Russian journalists and the Russian writers of the press is described as follows...
At 1 a.m. Saturday morning 11/6/10, a Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who is the editor in the city of Saratov and the magazine, Kommersant, was brutally beaten by two unidentified young men as he was walking out of a store, as was announced by the National Public Radio. None of his belongings were taken. He was struck with a heavy object, possibly a crow bar, and induced into a coma state. The now hospitalized writer in critical condition had recently covered a story of Russian environmentalists protesting the building of a highway running through the Khimi forest, just north of Moscow. A group called pro-Kremlin youth group Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guards) published a column on their blog titled "Journalist-Betrayers Should Be Punished" with a photo of Kashin captioned, "He will be punished," just days before this attack. Another journalist, Anatoly Adamchuk of the independent weekly Zhukovskiye Vesti, was repeatedly kicked in the head as well and hospitalized with concussions. The only object stolen was his hardrive. This, in the least, hints that the message the attackers wanted to send, was a warning for public criticism on the highway project to be witheld. Attacks such as this have occured in Russia frequently over the past year and these hate crimes are definitely scaring writers trying to exercise their freedom of press.
These events are worth learning about, because when an issue among people is so heated that people are becoming victims of violence, our attention should shift over to that issue and see where it may be rooted. Anything can be the cause of hate crimes, from racism to homophobia, to greed and preservance of one's own reputation (because the coverage of environmentalists threatened the popularity of the building company). In any case, hate crimes reflect insecurity and a threat to the aggressor committing the crime.
Murders of the Jews: Big Question 1: During World War II, rescue of Jews and other victims of the Nazis was not a priority for the United States government. Due in part to anti-semitism (prejudice against or hatred of Jews), the refugee policy of the U.S. State Department made it difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas to the United States and delayed publicizing the reports of the genocide of the Jews. In August 1942, the State Department received Nazi plans for the murder of Jews in Europe. The report that was sent by Gerhart Riegner (the World Jewish Congress representative in Geneva) was not passed on to its intended recipient, American Jewish leader, WJC president, Rabbi Stephen Wise. In April 1943, after the Allied governments confirmed the mass murder of the European Jews, Morgenthau became involved in the rescue issue. On January 13, 1944, Morgenthau and his staffers at the Treasury Department presented Roosevelt an 18-page indictment of the Roosevelt Administration's failure to help the Jews of Europe. The Treasury report, entitled “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of Jews,” was inspired by the failure of the Bermuda Conference of April 1943. Morgenthau met with Revisionist Zionist Peter Bergson, who urged him to create an organization to rescue the Jews of Europe. Morgenthau urged Roosevelt to create a rescue agency because of the political pressure to act upon the illegal refugee issue. Roosevelt issued an executive order on January 22, 1944 that established the War Refugee Board (WRB). The United States began its rescue efforts on behalf of European Jews caught in the Holocaust in January 1944 after Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt a document with decisive new evidence of State Department inaction that Roosevelt knew would be politically explosive if it became public. The new evidence charged that the State Department had used the government to prevent the rescue of Jews and news of the Holocaust from reaching the American public. The department had covered up the government's guilt by “concealment and misrepresentation.” Three days later, Morgenthau went to the White House to see Roosevelt with a more restrained but still forceful version of the document retitled “Personal Report to the President.”
Opinion Question:
· The U.S. Government should have become involved in helping the Jews, when the massacre was confirmed by Mr. Gerhart M. Riegner. Mr. Riegner received a report from the German business man who had excellent political military connections in Germany. In response of finding out the confirmation, the U.S should have sent a warning to the Germans that we are aware of their wrongdoings, and if they should continue the massacre we have no other choice but to attack. While waiting for their response, we should have notified our allies and alerting them of the massacre so that we can gain strength in our military. There is strength in numbers… The War Refugee Board (WRB)'s original idea was to establish “free ports” as safe havens for refugees in the United States and elsewhere yielded but one success: the establishment of a single refugee camp in Oswego, New York. President. Roosevelt instructed the WRB to take all measures to rescue victims of enemy oppression in imminent danger of death.
· My opinion of why they started the WRB is that the US Government wanted to rebuild their reputation, and take action in finally saving all of the refugees that have been asking for help over the years. Because every time the Jews would ask for help in getting visa’s to come to the US, the US kept postponing the visas because the US didn’t believe they were being harmed.
Peter Bergson Peter Bergson was a Jewish activist in the 1940's. Mr. Bergson, who was known in Israel by his Hebrew name, Hillel Kook, was born in 1915 in Lithuania. At age 10, amid widespread pogroms, he and his family fled to Palestine, where his uncle Avraham Yitzak Kook was the country's first Ashkenazi chief rabbi. Mr. Bergson first came to the United States in June 1940 to help set up a Jewish army to join the fight against Hitler. On Nov. 25, 1942, a small article appeared on Page 10 of The New York Times with the first official news that, up to that point, two million Jews had been killed in Europe. From then on, Mr. Bergson's talents at fund-raising and garnering publicity were devoted to the campaign to rescue European Jews. With his fellow campaigner, the writer Ben Hecht, Mr. Bergson set up the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews in Europe in 1943 in response to what he considered to be feeble official efforts to respond to the killings. To get attention for their cause, they held plays and mass pageants, including Mr. Hecht's ''A Flag Is Born'' and ''We Will Never Die,'' which toured the country after attracting 40,000 to Madison Square Garden in March 1943. Edward G. Robinson, Marlon Brando and Stella Adler were among those who took part. Most controversial were the committee's full-page advertisements in major newspapers, including one that appeared in The Times and The Washington Post in February 1943. It said: ''For sale to humanity: 70,000 Rumanian Jews, Guaranteed Human beings at $50 a Piece.'' Jewish leaders were outraged. And Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, head of the American Jewish Congress, quickly condemned the advertisement as a hoax. On one occasion, two days before Yom Kippur in October 1943, Mr. Bergson persuaded 400 orthodox rabbis to march on Washington to protest what they thought was the Roosevelt administration's indifference to the plight of European Jews. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not receive the marchers, having been told by Jewish advisers that the committee did not represent the mainstream of American Jewish opinion. But the marchers met with others in the capital. To many historians, the event helped force Congress to hold its first hearings on the plight of Jews in Europe and contributed directly to the creation of a government rescue agency, the War Refugee Board, in January 1944. New York Times Peter Bergson is worth learning about because he started and pushed the media to start telling the people about what is happening to the jews in europe under hitlers control. His push for attention to the american people through the media filled the hole that the american government was not informing the people. Because of actions it gave americans reasons to understand why the jews were fleeing here and reasons to make are government to take action.
The Bermuda Conference (April 19-29, 1943) March 23, 1943, the archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, pleaded with the British Government to the House of Lords in London to help the Jews in Europe. Ever since the news of Hitler’s plans of Jewish Annihilation, British church leaders and members of Parliament had been aching for something to be done about the issue at hand. The British Governments response to this was proposing to the US State Department that the allied countries hold a conference discussing whether the refugees who reached neutral countries be evacuated (to safe havens) but apparently there were some “complicating factors.” It was a possibility the Germans (or their satellites) may change from a policy of extermination to one of extrusion and embarrass countries by flooding their population with alien immigrants. It wasn’t until Jewish leaders organized a mass demonstration in Madison Square Garden, that the State Department saw public relations value of the conference. Their concerns?
“No Jewish organizations are represented and the conference is exploratory, can make no decisions, and must submit whatever recommendations it may have to the executive committee on refugees. Meanwhile the hourly slaughter of the Jews goes on.”
Jewish leaders pressed to send a delegation to the conference, but when rejected, they agreed to send a list of rescue proposals. The Bermuda Conference lasted approximately 12 days; in secrecy. Their list of proposals included the following:
“No approach be made to Hitler for the release of potential refugees.”
Suggestions for helping the refugees leave Spain.
A delegation on the post war repatriation of refugees.
After the conference, the members of the secret meeting stated that most of their reported proposals were rejected, but the media said otherwise… they told the public that “Refugee Removal Called Impossible.” According to the media, as well as the public, the Bermuda Conference was nothing more than “Diplomatic Tight-Rope Walking” and there was no way of telling how many more Jews died because of Conference procrastination.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that existed in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, which was occupied by Germany during World War II. This opposed Nazi Germany’s attempt to transport what was left of the ghetto population to an extermination camp. This rebellion against the Germans was launched on January 18, 1943. However, the most significant part of it took place from April 19 to May 16, 1943. During the Holocaust, it was the largest single revolt to take place. Himmler, military commander and a leading member of the Nazi Party, and the SS, a personal protection guard unit for Hitler, began planning the extermination of the entire Warsaw ghetto, which was supposed to take about three days. When SS and police units entered the ghetto at dawn on the eve of Passover, April 19th, they found the streets empty. From windows and hidden places, the resistance fighters fired bullets, threw grenades and Molotov cocktails. Because of this surprise attack, the SS units fled the ghetto with a small number killed, but a much greater amount wounded. With the support of their numbers, the SS began a systematic search and destroy of all the buildings in the ghetto. The uprising was over in just less than a month, however it was still a serious blow to the Nazis. This event is important as it inspired resistance in other ghettos as well as escape attempts from extermination camps. Hitler launched Operation Harvest Festival (Aktion Erntefest) in response to the fear of armed Jewish uprisings. Its aim was to kill all the Jews which remained in Lublin district of occupied Poland.
The War Refugee Board
On January 13, 1944, the secretary of treasury, Henry Morgenthau persuaded president Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish The War Refugee Board. Althought the U.S. Department were notified about the mass killings by Nazi Germany, they did not take any immediate action because they thought the best way to get rid of Nazi Germany's policies was too win the war and quickly and as soon as possible. The Refugee board worked with Jewish organizations, diplomats from different countries who were neutral about the situation, and other resistance groups in Europe to help liberate the jews from the concentration camps. One of the most influential people during this event was Raoul Wallenberg. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat based in Hungary. Wallenberg helped protect tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from being deported to Auschwitz by distributing protective Swedish passports. Because Sweden was a neutral country, Germany could not harm the Swedish Citizens. He also set up hospitals and nurseries and soup kitchens for Jews recovering in Budapest. Although the Refugee board had good intentions they could not follow up on what they had set out to do so the Refugee Board was abolished in 1945. The Refugee Board was important because it save thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany. All these innocent people were being tortured and killed in concentration camps and if they were still not dead by then they were sent to Auschwitz to be put to death. Because the Refugee board set up organizations with neutral countries and made other groups in Europe, their efforts saved many Jews by the end of the war. Although they could not save as many people as they had hoped their ideas and great efforts had saved many lives and therefore many people were thankful for the War Refugee Board. Love, Doni <3
CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
1. What caused the United States to give up neutrality and enter World War Two?
2. How might the Munich Conference help us to understand the decisions of the Bush Administration's stance on Terrorism following the attacks on September 11, 2001?
3. How can I best show that I understand the connection between World War Two and the emerging African American Civil Rights Movement?
Check Understanding Answers
1 -Japan's attack on Pearl Habor caused US to give up neutrality and enter World War 2.
-December 7th 1949 japan attacked Pearl Harbor. December 8th FDR declared War!
2
3 Civil Rights Movement After the War
Adolf Eichmann was sometimes referred to as "the architect of the Holocaust". He was a German Nazi and had similar power as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was charged by the General with the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe. In August 1940, he released his plan for forced Jewish deportation that never materialized. Eichmann at first made an offer through Joel Brand (who was to act as an intermediary) to trade captive European Jews to the Western Allies in exchange for trucks and other goods. When there was no positive response to this offer, Eichmann started deporting Jews, sending up to 430,000 Hungarians to their deaths in the Gas Chambers.
Eichmann was head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in the Gestapo from 1941 to 1945 and was chief of operations in the deportation of three million Jews to extermination camps. Adolf Eichmann is worth learning about because he was the guy in charge of deporting the Jews to their deaths. Eichmann was an important part to the Holocaust because he was the key to the deportations of Jews to extermination camps and without him there possibly could have been a big decrease in deaths. At the end of the war, Eichmann was arrested and confined to an American internment camp, but he was able to escape unrecognized. He fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him in 1960 to stand trial in Jerusalem. The controversial and publicized trial lasted from April 2 to August 14, 1961. Eichmann was sentenced to death and executed in Ramleh Prison on May 31, 1962.
World War Two
If "war is hell", why do we have it?Political Cartoons of World War Two
1.TIME FRAME?
1939-1945
September 1, 1939 - Germany invades Poland, World War 2 begins
December 7th, 1941 - Japan attacks Pearl harbor and Roosevelt signs American declaration of war Dec. 8th
August 14,1945 - Japan surrenders, war finally ends.
WW2 Time Line
2.WHO WERE THE MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE COMING AND FIGHTING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR?
This is a productive start! Let's add some photos of these leaders - serious ones, please.
"Axis" powers Vs. "Allies"
Axis powers include:
- Japan
- Germany
- Italy
Allied countries include:Nazi Germany- Adolf Hitler
- Extreme Nationalism
- Miltaristic expansion
- Forceful leader
- Private property with government controls
- Anticommunist
- Rise in leadership from desperate economic depression in Germany
These are the major points that describe Hitler. Let's include some more detailed discussion related to how (and why) these things relate to Hitler.Japan- Hideki Tojo
Fascist Italy- Benito Mussolini
Communist Soviet Union-Joseph Stalin
Great Britain- Winston Churchill
Neville Chamberlain
United States-Franklin D. Roosevelt
3.WHAT WERE THE REASONS FOR US INVOLVEMENT IN THIS WAR?
- Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor
- In September 1940 the US placed an embargo on Japan. Then in April 1941 the Japanese sign a neutrality agreement witht he USSR in the event of war with the USA/GB. Next in June/July the Japanese occupy Indochina. The US froze the assets of the Japanese too. Then on November 29, 1941 Ge
- evident threat to Roosevelt's Four Freedoms
4.WHAT STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES WERE UTILIZED TO ACHIEVE VICTORY?
-US created internment camps for Japanese (potential threats)
- "Two- fronted" combat technique, which enabled Allies to take hold of France and invade Nazi-occupied Europe
5.IN WHAT WAYS DID THE UNITED STATES CHANGE POLITICALLY, SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY AS A RESULT OF WORLD WAR TWO?
Socially
unemployed citizens.
CURRENT ARTICLES AND HELPFUL LINKS
Inside WWII
German Lawmaker's Remarks...
Codetalkers
Bush Administration Memos from NYT
BBC - World War Two
Nazi Secret Weapons
Pearl Harbor
WWII - Photographs
WW2 Info
World War Two Facts
WWII Resources
Facts About WWII
The US Home Front during the war
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WW2 TIME LINE AWESOME <CLICK
=
America and the Holocuast
Please insert your writing assignments here.
We Will Never Die Pageant
The American media did not give a lot of notice to the coming crisis in Europe. The media gave such little information about the atrocities being commited in Europe that over 50% of the American public did not believe it was happening or had no opinion on the matter. This had a startling impact on one American. Ben Hecht took it into his own hands to increase awareness are what was going on in Europe
Hecht’s plan was to create a theatrical presentation with a cast like none before and to tour the nation increasing awareness of what was truly happening in Europe. The Jewish organizations actually refused to fund this production so it was postponed for a period of time. The Jewish organizations feared that the pageants might provoke the Anti-Semitics to become more violent. The pageant finally found support in Hollywood where many famous actors starred in this production. It wasn’t a common thing in that time for actors to speak out politically so this came as a large shock to most of America.
This event is an important to study due to its impact on the rescue effort. The pageant pushed for alternative ways to save the European Jews that had no interaction in the war effort. The pageant increased awareness by performing to over 100,000 people across America and also it led to more coverage of what was going on in Europe through the media. The widespread support of the rescue effort that was caused by this performance pushed congress to create the war rescue board and without this happening the Jewish that were interned in Europe could have all been killed before we could have rescued them.
Father Charles Coughlin (1891-1979)
Charles Coughlin was one of the most influential Anti-Semitic preachers in the United States. Father Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest. He strongly believed in Christ and those that didn’t he disliked. Starting in 1926, he began to build an audience from his religious and political radio program. This is how he got the nickname “Radio Preacher”. He had over 30 million Sunday listeners during the 1930’s. Initially he supported FDR and his views but began to disagree with the “New Deal” FDR proposed. Eventually he turned the radio program into preaching anti-Semitism and warfare.
In 1936, Coughlin expressed antisemitic themes. He blamed the Depression on an "international conspiracy of Jewish bankers". He made a magazine,Social Justice, which was publicized around 1939. The December 5, 1938 issue of the magazine included an article written by Coughlin which attacked Jews, atheists and communists. Also at a rally in New York he gave a Nazi salute and said, "When we get through with the Jews in America, they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing." He also said "Nothing can be gained by linking ourselves with any organization which is engaged in agitating racial animosities or propagating racial hatred."
2010: Hate Crimes Throbbing In Russia
Hate crimes might at first be thought of as exclusively violence towards people who have prejudice thoughts held against them for traits such as homosexuality, different various races or ethnic groups, etc. Famous hate crimes like the death of Emmett Till, or the Al Quaida attack of 9/11 are having to do with extreme disgust with races/ethnic groups and can be considered political statements. However, the term "hate crime" is not limited to violence towards a person/group of people just for being something the aggressor doesn't agree with. A hate crime is meant to send a threatening message. One recent hate crime, or considered by some, an epidemic of hate crimes, against Russian journalists and the Russian writers of the press is described as follows...
At 1 a.m. Saturday morning 11/6/10, a Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who is the editor in the city of Saratov and the magazine, Kommersant, was brutally beaten by two unidentified young men as he was walking out of a store, as was announced by the National Public Radio. None of his belongings were taken. He was struck with a heavy object, possibly a crow bar, and induced into a coma state. The now hospitalized writer in critical condition had recently covered a story of Russian environmentalists protesting the building of a highway running through the Khimi forest, just north of Moscow. A group called pro-Kremlin youth group Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guards) published a column on their blog titled "Journalist-Betrayers Should Be Punished" with a photo of Kashin captioned, "He will be punished," just days before this attack. Another journalist, Anatoly Adamchuk of the independent weekly Zhukovskiye Vesti, was repeatedly kicked in the head as well and hospitalized with concussions. The only object stolen was his hardrive. This, in the least, hints that the message the attackers wanted to send, was a warning for public criticism on the highway project to be witheld. Attacks such as this have occured in Russia frequently over the past year and these hate crimes are definitely scaring writers trying to exercise their freedom of press.
These events are worth learning about, because when an issue among people is so heated that people are becoming victims of violence, our attention should shift over to that issue and see where it may be rooted. Anything can be the cause of hate crimes, from racism to homophobia, to greed and preservance of one's own reputation (because the coverage of environmentalists threatened the popularity of the building company). In any case, hate crimes reflect insecurity and a threat to the aggressor committing the crime.
Murders of the Jews: Big Question 1:
During World War II, rescue of Jews and other victims of the Nazis was not a priority for the United States government. Due in part to anti-semitism (prejudice against or hatred of Jews), the refugee policy of the U.S. State Department made it difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas to the United States and delayed publicizing the reports of the genocide of the Jews.
In August 1942, the State Department received Nazi plans for the murder of Jews in Europe. The report that was sent by Gerhart Riegner (the World Jewish Congress representative in Geneva) was not passed on to its intended recipient, American Jewish leader, WJC president, Rabbi Stephen Wise.
In April 1943, after the Allied governments confirmed the mass murder of the European Jews, Morgenthau became involved in the rescue issue. On January 13, 1944, Morgenthau and his staffers at the Treasury Department presented Roosevelt an 18-page indictment of the Roosevelt Administration's failure to help the Jews of Europe.
The Treasury report, entitled “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of Jews,” was inspired by the failure of the Bermuda Conference of April 1943. Morgenthau met with Revisionist Zionist Peter Bergson, who urged him to create an organization to rescue the Jews of Europe. Morgenthau urged Roosevelt to create a rescue agency because of the political pressure to act upon the illegal refugee issue. Roosevelt issued an executive order on January 22, 1944 that established the War Refugee Board (WRB).
The United States began its rescue efforts on behalf of European Jews caught in the Holocaust in January 1944 after Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt a document with decisive new evidence of State Department inaction that Roosevelt knew would be politically explosive if it became public.
The new evidence charged that the State Department had used the government to prevent the rescue of Jews and news of the Holocaust from reaching the American public. The department had covered up the government's guilt by “concealment and misrepresentation.” Three days later, Morgenthau went to the White House to see Roosevelt with a more restrained but still forceful version of the document retitled “Personal Report to the President.”
Opinion Question:
· The U.S. Government should have become involved in helping the Jews, when the massacre was confirmed by Mr. Gerhart M. Riegner. Mr. Riegner received a report from the German business man who had excellent political military connections in Germany.
In response of finding out the confirmation, the U.S should have sent a warning to the Germans that we are aware of their wrongdoings, and if they should continue the massacre we have no other choice but to attack. While waiting for their response, we should have notified our allies and alerting them of the massacre so that we can gain strength in our military. There is strength in numbers…
The War Refugee Board (WRB)'s original idea was to establish “free ports” as safe havens for refugees in the United States and elsewhere yielded but one success: the establishment of a single refugee camp in Oswego, New York. President. Roosevelt instructed the WRB to take all measures to rescue victims of enemy oppression in imminent danger of death.
· My opinion of why they started the WRB is that the US Government wanted to rebuild their reputation, and take action in finally saving all of the refugees that have been asking for help over the years. Because every time the Jews would ask for help in getting visa’s to come to the US, the US kept postponing the visas because the US didn’t believe they were being harmed.
Peter Bergson
Peter Bergson was a Jewish activist in the 1940's. Mr. Bergson, who was known in Israel by his Hebrew name, Hillel Kook, was born in 1915 in Lithuania. At age 10, amid widespread pogroms, he and his family fled to Palestine, where his uncle Avraham Yitzak Kook was the country's first Ashkenazi chief rabbi. Mr. Bergson first came to the United States in June 1940 to help set up a Jewish army to join the fight against Hitler. On Nov. 25, 1942, a small article appeared on Page 10 of The New York Times with the first official news that, up to that point, two million Jews had been killed in Europe. From then on, Mr. Bergson's talents at fund-raising and garnering publicity were devoted to the campaign to rescue European Jews. With his fellow campaigner, the writer Ben Hecht, Mr. Bergson set up the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews in Europe in 1943 in response to what he considered to be feeble official efforts to respond to the killings. To get attention for their cause, they held plays and mass pageants, including Mr. Hecht's ''A Flag Is Born'' and ''We Will Never Die,'' which toured the country after attracting 40,000 to Madison Square Garden in March 1943. Edward G. Robinson, Marlon Brando and Stella Adler were among those who took part. Most controversial were the committee's full-page advertisements in major newspapers, including one that appeared in The Times and The Washington Post in February 1943. It said: ''For sale to humanity: 70,000 Rumanian Jews, Guaranteed Human beings at $50 a Piece.'' Jewish leaders were outraged. And Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, head of the American Jewish Congress, quickly condemned the advertisement as a hoax.
On one occasion, two days before Yom Kippur in October 1943, Mr. Bergson persuaded 400 orthodox rabbis to march on Washington to protest what they thought was the Roosevelt administration's indifference to the plight of European Jews. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not receive the marchers, having been told by Jewish advisers that the committee did not represent the mainstream of American Jewish opinion. But the marchers met with others in the capital. To many historians, the event helped force Congress to hold its first hearings on the plight of Jews in Europe and contributed directly to the creation of a government rescue agency, the War Refugee Board, in January 1944.
New York Times
Peter Bergson is worth learning about because he started and pushed the media to start telling the people about what is happening to the jews in europe under hitlers control. His push for attention to the american people through the media filled the hole that the american government was not informing the people. Because of actions it gave americans reasons to understand why the jews were fleeing here and reasons to make are government to take action.
The Bermuda Conference (April 19-29, 1943)
March 23, 1943, the archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, pleaded with the British Government to the House of Lords in London to help the Jews in Europe. Ever since the news of Hitler’s plans of Jewish Annihilation, British church leaders and members of Parliament had been aching for something to be done about the issue at hand. The British Governments response to this was proposing to the US State Department that the allied countries hold a conference discussing whether the refugees who reached neutral countries be evacuated (to safe havens) but apparently there were some “complicating factors.”
It was a possibility the Germans (or their satellites) may change from a policy of extermination to one of extrusion and embarrass countries by flooding their population with alien immigrants.
It wasn’t until Jewish leaders organized a mass demonstration in Madison Square Garden, that the State Department saw public relations value of the conference.
Their concerns?
- “No Jewish organizations are represented and the conference is exploratory, can make no decisions, and must submit whatever recommendations it may have to the executive committee on refugees. Meanwhile the hourly slaughter of the Jews goes on.”
Jewish leaders pressed to send a delegation to the conference, but when rejected, they agreed to send a list of rescue proposals.The Bermuda Conference lasted approximately 12 days; in secrecy. Their list of proposals included the following:
- “No approach be made to Hitler for the release of potential refugees.”
- Suggestions for helping the refugees leave Spain.
- A delegation on the post war repatriation of refugees.
After the conference, the members of the secret meeting stated that most of their reported proposals were rejected, but the media said otherwise… they told the public that “Refugee Removal Called Impossible.”According to the media, as well as the public, the Bermuda Conference was nothing more than “Diplomatic Tight-Rope Walking” and there was no way of telling how many more Jews died because of Conference procrastination.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that existed in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, which was occupied by Germany during World War II. This opposed Nazi Germany’s attempt to transport what was left of the ghetto population to an extermination camp. This rebellion against the Germans was launched on January 18, 1943. However, the most significant part of it took place from April 19 to May 16, 1943. During the Holocaust, it was the largest single revolt to take place.
Himmler, military commander and a leading member of the Nazi Party, and the SS, a personal protection guard unit for Hitler, began planning the extermination of the entire Warsaw ghetto, which was supposed to take about three days. When SS and police units entered the ghetto at dawn on the eve of Passover, April 19th, they found the streets empty. From windows and hidden places, the resistance fighters fired bullets, threw grenades and Molotov cocktails. Because of this surprise attack, the SS units fled the ghetto with a small number killed, but a much greater amount wounded. With the support of their numbers, the SS began a systematic search and destroy of all the buildings in the ghetto. The uprising was over in just less than a month, however it was still a serious blow to the Nazis.
This event is important as it inspired resistance in other ghettos as well as escape attempts from extermination camps. Hitler launched Operation Harvest Festival (Aktion Erntefest) in response to the fear of armed Jewish uprisings. Its aim was to kill all the Jews which remained in Lublin district of occupied Poland.
The War Refugee Board
On January 13, 1944, the secretary of treasury, Henry Morgenthau persuaded president Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish The War Refugee Board. Althought the U.S. Department were notified about the mass killings by Nazi Germany, they did not take any immediate action because they thought the best way to get rid of Nazi Germany's policies was too win the war and quickly and as soon as possible. The Refugee board worked with Jewish organizations, diplomats from different countries who were neutral about the situation, and other resistance groups in Europe to help liberate the jews from the concentration camps. One of the most influential people during this event was Raoul Wallenberg. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat based in Hungary. Wallenberg helped protect tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from being deported to Auschwitz by distributing protective Swedish passports. Because Sweden was a neutral country, Germany could not harm the Swedish
Citizens. He also set up hospitals and nurseries and soup kitchens for Jews recovering in Budapest. Although the Refugee board had good intentions they could not follow up on what they had set out to do so the Refugee Board was abolished in 1945.
The Refugee Board was important because it save thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany. All these innocent people were being tortured and killed in concentration camps and if they were still not dead by then they were sent to Auschwitz to be put to death. Because the Refugee board set up organizations with neutral countries and made other groups in Europe, their efforts saved many Jews by the end of the war. Although they could not save as many people as they had hoped their ideas and great efforts had saved many lives and therefore many people were thankful for the War Refugee Board.
Love, Doni <3
CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
1. What caused the United States to give up neutrality and enter World War Two?
2. How might the Munich Conference help us to understand the decisions of the Bush Administration's stance on Terrorism following the attacks on September 11, 2001?
3. How can I best show that I understand the connection between World War Two and the emerging African American Civil Rights Movement?
Check Understanding Answers
1 -Japan's attack on Pearl Habor caused US to give up neutrality and enter World War 2.
-December 7th 1949 japan attacked Pearl Harbor. December 8th FDR declared War!
2
3 Civil Rights Movement After the War
We found Hitler.
Battle of Normandy Spoof
Historical Satire
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann was sometimes referred to as "the architect of the Holocaust". He was a German Nazi and had similar power as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was charged by the General with the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe. In August 1940, he released his plan for forced Jewish deportation that never materialized. Eichmann at first made an offer through Joel Brand (who was to act as an intermediary) to trade captive European Jews to the Western Allies in exchange for trucks and other goods. When there was no positive response to this offer, Eichmann started deporting Jews, sending up to 430,000 Hungarians to their deaths in the Gas Chambers.
Eichmann was head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in the Gestapo from 1941 to 1945 and was chief of operations in the deportation of three million Jews to extermination camps. Adolf Eichmann is worth learning about because he was the guy in charge of deporting the Jews to their deaths. Eichmann was an important part to the Holocaust because he was the key to the deportations of Jews to extermination camps and without him there possibly could have been a big decrease in deaths. At the end of the war, Eichmann was arrested and confined to an American internment camp, but he was able to escape unrecognized. He fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him in 1960 to stand trial in Jerusalem. The controversial and publicized trial lasted from April 2 to August 14, 1961. Eichmann was sentenced to death and executed in Ramleh Prison on May 31, 1962.